Pattarude Mutton Curry, the upcoming Malayalam short film directed by Arjun Babu, ran into trouble after some members of the Hindu Brahmin community wrote to the Central Board of Film Certification’s (CBFC) objecting to the film’s title claiming that it offended the community and requested for the film’s certification to be cancelled.
In their letter to the regional officer of CBFC, the All Kerala Brahmins Association said, “From the title, it appears that it is intended to insult the Brahmin community who are called as patters [derogatory Malayalam word for Brahmins] to insult them in a foul language. The fact that Brahmins are vegetarians is also known to all.”
They stated that using the word pattar along with mutton curry is intended to offend the community.
Speaking to Silverscreen India, All Kerala Brahmins Association president Karimpuzha Raman said, “Pattar is a slang that is used to denote a Brahmin. First of all, that itself is wrong. It is not a way to call a Brahmin and is a very derogatory usage. From the title, it appears that it is intended to insult the Brahmin community who are called as pattars in an insulting language. The fact that Brahmins are vegetarians is a known fact. Thus, the usage of words pattar and mutton curry is intended to insult Brahmins.”
He said that if required the association will take up the matter with YouTube.
The title of the short film, which is set to release on YouTube on Saturday, has been changed to Mutton Curry.
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“I talked to Ms Parvathy, who is the regional member of the CBFC, Trivandrum, and she assured me that they will not support such films and name and contents will be viewed before the release. We also sent our team from Trivandrum to meet Ms Parvathy to handover our appeal. In addition, Suresh Kumar, president of Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce had a talk with me today [Wednesday] morning and assured that this film will not be screened or given permission in this name. They will go through and assured they will do the needful in regard to film which hurt our feelings,” Raman said.
Asked if he had spoken with the film’s director, Raman said that Arjun had assured to remove the word pattar from the title and had said that the film does not demean anybody.
However, Raman said that he will complain to YouTube if he finds the content derogatory.
“We are a pro-active association and we are progressive. We don’t believe caste system in a way, but when some talks bad about us, we can’t sit quietly. Nobody should be harassed,” Raman said.
I as a member of Kerala Iyer community seek support of fellow tweeps in condemning the naming of a new Malayalam movie as ” Pattarudey Mutton Curry”.Kerala Brahmana Sabha has officially written to Censor board.@NPIswaran @Arunakrishnan @Oommen_Chandy @surendranbjp @chennithala pic.twitter.com/fqJyQ0RJ7e
— Venkitesh S Iyer (@venkiiyer) March 15, 2021
Talking to Silverscreen India, Arjun said: “The only problem was the name and nothing else. There will be nothing derogatory content. It is a comedy film.”
The Kochi-based filmmaker, who has also written the film’s script, said that he was informed about the offending word in the title on March 13 following which he removed it.